HIRING THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE RIGHT JOB©2005

By Cheryl J. Leone
CEO, Catalyst Group, Inc.

Any successful owner will tell you that hiring the right person for the right job is the hardest part of employee management. You are getting ready to invest a great deal of time, energy and money in an individual you know nothing about.

The first thing I teach our clients in the hiring process is you are looking for ATTITUDE AND APTITUDE. Everything else can be taught!

The time to act is BEFORE you ever get a resignation. I believe in coming up with a training program for all new employees that is in place. Thus, when you get a resignation you have someone else other than the departing employee to train the new employee.

Let me interject some strong advice.. CREATE S.O.P. (Standard of Practice) MANUALS. Every process in your office should be typed and in a manual showing checklist items, forms and deadlines of how things are handled in each practice area and with each office management procedure. This information is worth its weight in gold and it should be retained in house for training and on a CD stored away from the office. I could write pages about why this is important, but I will tell you that your office runs on systems and it is impossible for the owner to know them all. This is the training and learning ground for all new employees. Make your current employees share their knowledge now.

Once you find out there is a position about to open, don't panic. Most employees give two weeks' notice and there is no way you are going to hire the right person in that two weeks. First of all, if the new hire works somewhere else they want to give their employer two weeks notice. Secondly, it will take you one week just to get the ad placed and set up the interviews. It is a natural inclination to hire the first person that looks good because you feel pressured to have someone in place quickly.

Immediately hire a temporary staff person through an agency. Bring that person in at least one of the two weeks just to learn the office systems. Do not worry about teaching them the job. Your goal is to have clerical support. Your other employees will pitch in on big projects and all you want is to have someone to hand work to until you find the right person.

Graciously accept the two-week notice and ask the person leaving to draft a detailed job description for you of all their duties. I can guarantee you that you don't know half of what the person does on a daily basis. The second thing you ask the departing employee is to make a small manual of certain things he or she does that will assist the person who will take his or her place. Trust me, there are things that get done in your office you probably don't have the slightest idea how they get done. The third thing you do is ask for a 30 day list of any deadlines or important dates that you can review immediately. Then use your departing staff member to help you get ahead thirty days.

Do not look at the departing employee to train the replacement person. If someone is leaving, you need every minute of that person's time to get the work done, continue the momentum of the cases, and to assist you in looking thirty days down the road for any emergencies. You want help stabilizing you and the position. Don't waste a day of it. Unless there is bitterness resulting in the departure, good employees will want to help you get stabilized during the transition.

There are pros and cons about allowing someone to stay for the two weeks or having them leave immediately. Don't let fear or helplessness drive this decision. Certainly if an employee has been fired the best advice you get is never let them back at their workstation or near a computer. Tell them a date and time they may come back to pick up personal items and their paycheck. I can tell you horror stories of fired employees who went back and destroyed computer files, sent emails bad-mouthing firms, or even taken firm intellectual properties with them. My bottom line rule is if the employee has been a good employee and will continue to give 110% during the last two weeks they stay. If I believe they won't, I accept the resignation on the spot.

The last position placed for a client I had over 400 applicants. There is absolutely no way you can interview all 400. Out of the 400, there were at least one-third that on the face of resumes were superior resumes and qualifications. I require all applicants to submit resumes through email. I read them, save them to folders, and mark the ones I want to interview. If there is any resume that has any spelling errors in them, I reject them immediately by email and tell the applicant why. If they cannot accurately type a resume, they cannot make it in any office I manage.

I then email the ones I am interested in a summary of the business and give an overview of the philosophies of the firm. I attach a job description, the required skills, and a summary of benefits, together with the salary range. It also contains a complete firm application which they are required to complete and bring with them to the interview along with an authorization that allows background and reference checks. I do this to weed out those that are not interested for any reason. I then schedule interviews with those that are still interested after they get my information.

I do a three-interview process. The interviewing process is important because any applicant is going to walk the walk and talk the talk. It is your job to listen for information between the lines.

The first interview is not the time for you to talk but rather to listen to the applicant talk. Watch for people who change jobs frequently. I always ask applicants to explain why they left a job. My first interview is always an interview to get a feel for the candidate more than the qualifications they list. One of my favorite questions is, "Tell me about yourself." This allows them to use their communication skills. I ask them to tell me their professional goals and what they are looking for from an employer. The first interview should be no more than 30 minutes and you should have in hand when they leave the signed application and authorizations.

While I am doing the first interview, I am rating them on a scale of 1 to 10 on certain areas. Do they look professional and talk professional. This is important in any business or firm. I refuse to interview anyone who shows up in blue jeans or shows up late. I expect my applicants to have a good grasp of the English language. I watch their gestures and their face when they are talking. If they claim great experience in an area, I ask specific questions. I have some basic computer questions that anyone who has a home computer can answer. I just want to know if they know their stuff. I asked one applicant if they were familiar with Access and they responded by asking me, "Access to what?" Needless to say, they did not get to the next interview.

Because I believe in ATTITUDE AND APTITUDE, I do not necessarily believe you have to hire people with prior experience in your practice or business except in specialized positions. I keep my specialized positions filled with people with four-year degrees and experience in the practice area. Rather, I believe that people with the right attitude and the ability to learn and grow are the best employees. Anything can be taught except attitude and aptitude. They must be consumer friendly and you must find people who can relate to your practice clients. Also, remember that someone without experience in your field has no preconceived ideas of how to do things. You get to teach them your way.

I may interview as many as 20 to 25 applicants during the first interviews and I am willing to do more. At the end of round one, I look for those I marked with 8 to 10 ratings. If you do not do the rating during the interview, you will forget down the road. Usually I end up with about 10 applicants I am truly interested in as potential employees.

The second interview is with someone else in the practice or business. . If you, as the lowner did the first interview, let a staff person do the second interview. I also have the departing employee meet with the applicant as well. This is to give you an objective over-view of the applicant. The second interviewer does as the first interviewer and gives a rating. At this interview, if you want to test their computer skills you should have a test set up. I believe in a simple test of retyping a document on a computer and a letter. I walk away but I observe. I am not worried about speed but rather familiarity with the computer and accuracy.

The third interview is the crucial interview. At this point, I rarely have more than three to five remaining applicants. This is the time for you to do the talking. You need to let them know your expectations with respect to the position. If you have never thought about this, take the time to write out what you expect from an employee. This is a good way to start someone new out doing things your way. This is everything from how you feel about people being late to quality work product and team play. They must know up front what you will be looking for in their performance. You make sure they understand your benefits and the salary offered. The worst question in the world is, "What do you need for salary." You should know your budget and what you can or cannot pay. If you make an offer and they cannot work for that amount, you can decide if you wish to pay more but do not be placed in a hostage situation. Applicants are very perceptive if you are unsure of yourself with respect to salary.

I always insist they meet with who will be their supervisor so the supervisor, who also goes over their expectations.

With this three round interview complete you then check references, do background checks, and if you test for drugs you have the drug test set up. In talking to references, be careful of being given references of people they were close to. No matter who the reference is, I want to talk with their immediate supervisor from positions held over the past five years, the prior employer owner, and the human resources officer, if any. I always ask two questions; i.e. (1) what was there greatest strength; and (2) what was their biggest weakness. I verify any educational degrees listed. I also ask for two personal references and I call them. I can tell you that you will be given someone they know will give a glowing reference but I have found out more things by letting the personal reference talk than I ever did with the business references.

Once all three interviews are complete, the references and background checks done, I do a round table with all who interviewed and we rank the top three or five. We contact these applicants and have them take some pre-employment tests that will show personality, ethical considerations, work ethic, etc. There are many companies that provide this service and it is amazing what information you get back.

With the results of the pre-employment tests we again meet as a group, rank the top three, offer the job to the highest rated applicant, and go down the list if the first one declines.

Why go through all of this? Again, you are going to invest your resources and your money into an employee and the time and training it takes to get them to be a member of the team. You have to give yourself every advantage. You want the best of the best. You want to find soaring eagles rather than those who want to stay in a cage. You should not lightly add someone to your work culture without good due diligence. I promise you that your retention rate will be higher and there will be less confusion with implementing a new employee because you have made a good choice.

One final note of caution. Not all the interviewing and testing in the world can make you always right. The first ninety days of any new employee's performance in the practice or business should be monitored closely and if it is not working out cut the new employee loose and start over. Do not accept less than the best of the best! If you are not 100% satisfied during the first ninety days, you never will be and it will only get worse.

There is nothing magical about finding the right person for the right job. Rather it is a commitment to due diligence up front that makes the search worth the work and worth the wait.

360 Catalyst offers pre-hiring testing and interviewing for its clients. The investment in the time up front pays off in the keeping good employees down the road. Contact cjleone@catalystgroupinc.com for more information.

360 Catalyst also offers development of training software designed to fit your business or practice area. We use Trainersoft™ which allows us to design training CD's specific to your company. Imagine being able to set a new employee at a computer and letting them learn all about your company, your expectations and your policies and procedures. Contact dwfavor@catalystgroupinc.com for more information.